Alanon
It has been 3.5 years since I returned from Ecuador. When I returned, I found my home Alanon group radically changed. Gone is the premise that Alanon supports no other groups or affiliations. They have grown adamant about being All-a-non-smoking group and even the smell of smoke on my clothes is offensive to them. My home base is now plastered with the Free Laws which forbid my being a member there any longer. I belong, they inform me, in Smoker's Anonymous. It is the same all over my newly Free home base. We are Free at last. There has been a full paradigm shift within the meaning of "free." I reckon redefining the word is one way to be free at last.
God, I miss Alanon. It is - was -the only unconditionally embracing family I have ever known. I have known their embrace since 1972 and it has literally saved my life more than once. The endorsement of this particular outside cause puts them in league with the mother who made her children memorize the 1964 Surgeon General's report (the smoke free original) on their way to Daddy's drunken sex games. My mother was a woman ahead of her time. She hated cigs with such a passion that 10 out of her 11 children smoke with loyal passion. The 11th smokes joints like they were cigarettes. She didn't like pot, either.
I have been trying to find my next generation over the internet. Not working so far. The judgemental chaos of the internet too often pokes dirty fingers into infected wounds. Yeah, I know. Personal problem. In an effective support group, that is a simple fact worthy of respect. On the internet, improper verbage can make you fair game for pot shots from whatever caped crusader happens to be flying by. Within the collective, all verbage is improper to someone.
God, I miss Alanon. It is - was -the only unconditionally embracing family I have ever known. I have known their embrace since 1972 and it has literally saved my life more than once. The endorsement of this particular outside cause puts them in league with the mother who made her children memorize the 1964 Surgeon General's report (the smoke free original) on their way to Daddy's drunken sex games. My mother was a woman ahead of her time. She hated cigs with such a passion that 10 out of her 11 children smoke with loyal passion. The 11th smokes joints like they were cigarettes. She didn't like pot, either.
I have been trying to find my next generation over the internet. Not working so far. The judgemental chaos of the internet too often pokes dirty fingers into infected wounds. Yeah, I know. Personal problem. In an effective support group, that is a simple fact worthy of respect. On the internet, improper verbage can make you fair game for pot shots from whatever caped crusader happens to be flying by. Within the collective, all verbage is improper to someone.
Replies
How recently did your town go \"smoke free?\" The non folks here foam at the mouth when they deliver their sermons.